As the Stanley Cup playoffs move into the middle of the second round and the NHL continues to announce the finalists for its various 2025-26 awards, the Caps got a bit of their offseason business done on Thursday. Washington announced a pair of signings, inking 2024 sixth-rounder Petr Sikora to a three-year entry level contract and signing center Theodor Niederbach to a one-year, two-way contract.
Sikora was chosen with the 178th overall pick in the 2024 NHL Draft, and he has represented his native Czechia at the IIHF World Junior Championship in 2025 and 2026, helping the team to a bronze medal finish in 2025 and captaining it to a silver medal finish in 2026.
Last season, Sikora skated for Trinec Ocelari HC, totaling three goals and six assists for nine points in 24 games. He also added a goal and an assist for two points in 10 playoff contests. The 6-foot-0, 194-pound center plays bigger than his size, and he is known as a diligent, agitating type of player who can also contribute offensively.
During his draft year of 2024, Red Line Report ranked Sikora at No. 77 among all draft eligible players, comparing his playing style to that of Tampa Bay’s Yanni Gourde and writing, “We just love this little Tazmanian Devil who buzzes around the ice playing a chippy game, and also has the playmaking skill to make players around him better.”
Sikora’s three-year deal carries a salary cap hit of $995,000 at the NHL level.
Niederbach is a 24-year-old Swedish pivot who stands 6-foot-0 and tips the scales at 196 pounds. He was Detroit’s second-round choice (51st overall) in the 2020 NHL Draft, but the Wings relinquished their rights to Niederbach two years ago; he has played the entirety of his career to date in his native Sweden. During his draft year, he was seen as a playmaking center with top six upside.
Niederbach has spent most of the last six seasons skating in the Swedish Hockey League, and he has elevated his offensive game in each of the last two campaigns. That recent uptick in offense combined with being teammates with winger Ivar Stenberg – widely expected to be one of the first two or three players chosen in the 2026 NHL Draft in Buffalo next month – has put plenty of eyeballs on Niederbach of late, and he has stirred up interest among several NHL clubs.
Niederbach totaled 33 points (10 goals, 23 assists) in 51 games with MoDo Hockey Ornskoldsvik in 2024-25, and he then signed with Frolunda HC last season. With Frolunda HC in 2025-26, he totaled 32 points (13 goals, 19 assists) in 52 games, adding a goal and an assist for two points in half a dozen playoff contests.
The Niederbach contract is a two-way pact that will pay him $1,025,000 at the NHL level and $85,000 in the AHL.
In other Caps news, USA Hockey announced today that Washington winger Ryan Leonard will represent Team USA at the 2026 IIHF World Championship in Switzerland. Leonard is the only Capitals player participating in the annual tourney. Caps coach Spencer Carbery and goaltending coach Scott Murray are representing Team Canada, with Carbery taking on the role of an assistant coach.
Finally, the Caps received word of the recent passing of Russ White, a reporter who covered the team from its humble beginnings in 1974. White wrote for the Washington Daily News and later, the Washington Star-News and Washington Star after The Star purchased The Daily News in 1972. In addition to covering the Caps as a reporter from 1974-81, White also joined Ron Weber as a color commentator on the team’s early radio broadcasts.
In October of 2024 when the Caps visited Tampa to take on the Lightning, White’s two sons and one of his grandchildren made the trek to Tampa to deliver an important artifact in Washington Capitals history. When the Caps played their first ever game on Oct. 9, 1974 against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden, Jim Hrycuik scored the first goal in franchise history in what was a 6-3 loss for Washington that night.
After the game, Hrycuik handed White the stick with which he scored that goal. White had the stick for over five decades before his sons delivered it to the Caps on a Saturday morning in Tampa about 18 months ago.
Russ White was 86 when he passed away last week, and we send our condolences to his family and friends as well as our eternal thanks for the great work he did in a vastly different media environment in those difficult early days of the franchise’s existence. As you’ll see from this fun story, he was a clever and enterprising reporter as well.
